The college earlier had acknowledged it had used a consultant to raise money and that it had indeed received state General Improvement Fund money (more than $600,000, we've learned), but that it had done nothing illegal in the process and had nothing more to say. If Neal has admitted to getting a cash kickback from a third party as a result of money he directed to Ecclesia, they know nothing and did nothing illegal, College President Oren Paris III has written.

I'm not clear what prompted the item today. I have reported this week on additional political involvement by Ecclesia. It had made other applications for GIF money. One of its board members, Joseph Wood, was recently elected Washington County judge thanks to some Republican machinations and disingenuous statements by Micah Neal. Reporting also has included some new details about ties in various personal relationships among those named in subpoenas for information issued by a federal Grand Jury. Perhaps other media have decided that new reporting is worth following up and Ecclessia is going the silent route.

KARK reports that one person was killed in a shooting about 10:40 p.m. Sunday near 21st and Oak Streets.

Additional pleadings have been filed in the citizen's lawsuit challenging the new Arkansas voter ID law that includes evidence the new law resulted in votes in a recent special election in Russellville not being counted.

Readers also liked…

We take a visit to the weekly hot check court in Sherwood District Court, the subject of a recent civil rights lawsuit filed by ACLU Arkansas and others, who say the system there results in a modern-day debtor's prison

A petition drive has begun to encourage a demand that Sen. Jason Rapert pay for the legal fees in defending his Ten Commandments monument proposed for the state Capitol grounds. It's more work by the Satanic Temple, which has fought church-state entanglement around the country.

by Max Brantley

Aug 28, 2016

Most Shared

A federal prosecutor in Missouri said Friday that a former legislator, Henry Wilkins IV of Pine Bluff, had said he'd received $100,000 in bribes as a state legislator from indicted former lobbyist Rusty Cranford. He was not alone on an illicit dole.

On Wednesday, both chambers of the Arkansas legislature approved identical versions of a bill to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, the powerful health care companies at the center of a dispute over cuts in reimbursements paid to pharmacists.

We learned today of the death of a long-time Arkansas Blog friend, Richard Boosey Jr. of Mount Vermpn/

A federal prosecutor in Missouri said Friday that a former legislator, Henry Wilkins IV of Pine Bluff, had said he'd received $100,000 in bribes as a state legislator from indicted former lobbyist Rusty Cranford. He was not alone on an illicit dole.